LI BRARY OF CONGRE SS. 

[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] 



.=£& 



*"£^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMER1CA.| 



A REVIEW 



"Spiritual |fT;niife$tati(ras. ,t 



READ BEFOEE THE 



CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN 



':i 



CHAELES 'BEECHEK, 

PASTOE OF TnE FIEST CON&EEGATIOXAL CnUEOH, 
XKTAKK, XEW JERSEY. 



it to prlt: 

a. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE. 

M.DCCC.LIII. 



A REVIEW 



"SPIBITUAL MANIFESTATIONS." 






S 



A REVIEW 



u 



Spiritual ^niftMbu" 



READ BEFOEE THE 






CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN. 

BY 

CHARLES BEECHER, 

T CON6K 
K, NET i 

*%\ 
I 



PASTOR OF THE FIEST CONGREGATIONAL CHTJECH, 
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. 



G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE. 



M.DCCC.LIII, 



I^MMMHH 



m mmm mma j^m £ 






Entered according to Act of Cwigress, in the year 1S53, by 

Charles Beecher, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. 



Billin & Brothers, Printers and Stereotypes, 20 North William street, Xew York. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



The Congregational Association op New York and 
Brooklyn, in order to increase rt the interest and useful- 
ness of associational meetings," are wont to assign topics, 
having either a general or a professional interest, to selected 
members of the body, upon each of which a paper is pre- 
pared, and read at the ensuing semi-annual meeting. These 
papers serve to introduce an informal and fraternal discus- 
sion, in which all may participate. The original "minute" 
provides that these exercises be: (1.) "An answer to some 
question in theology; (2.) A review of some published work, 
or some existing controversy; (3.) An exegesis of some 
passage of Scripture." 

In accordance with this usage, both the author and the 
subject of the following review were selected ; and in its 
present form, the review was read at the spring-meoting 
of the Association, April, 1853. 

The author desires it to be distinctly understood that 
the Association is in no sense responsible, either for the 



vi Introductory Note. 

sentiments or the publication of this review. At the same 
time, it is proper to say that the members of the Associa- 
tion, as individuals, both those who agreed with, and those 
who dissented from the conclusions of the author, thought 
it altogether proper that the paper should be published, 
as a contribution towards the sober investigation of a sub- 
ject which has gained such indisputable notoriety. 

No further explanations seem to be demanded by a work 
so unpretending as the following. It is so brief that its 
scope and character can be more easily ascertained by read- 
ing it, than by any outline description the author might affix 
to it in the shape of extended preface. 

New York, April, 1853. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I— ORIGIN 

CHAPTEE I. Hypotheses Stated.— Odyle. .... 9-12 

But two hypotheses possible— pneumatic and apneumatic. Odyle; is there 
such an agent ? its properties. 

CHAPTEE II. Apneumatic Hypothesis.— Cerebral Automacy. . . 12-20 
Hypothesis compared "with the facts in question, viz. : Delirium, somnambu- 
lism, dreams, confused personal identity, rapping, tipping, pushing, drumming, 
effects at a distance from the agent, spiritual claims, knowledge of past and 
present, oracles, rhabdomancy, apparitions, nervous epidemics ;— all accounted 
for without the aid of Spirits. 

CHAPTEE III. Apneumatic Hypothesis.— Mental Automacy. . . 20-22 

A second form of Apneumatism, preferred by some. General verdict upon the 
entire " Spiritual Movement." 

CHAPTEE IV. Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Philosophic Argument. . . 23-29 
Eigbtfully reviews the apneumatic. Argument divided : (1) Philosophic and 
(2) Scriptural. Philosophic objections to the apneumatic argument : — It proves 
too much and drives the consistent reasoner into Materialism : — It involves a 
contradiction of terms : — It pushes the reasoner into scientific extravagance and 
absurd credulity. 

CHAPTEE V. Mental Automacy Unsatisfactory. . . . 30-37 

Eeview of Apneumatism continued. Mental automacy no better than cerebral: 
— Involves the same contradiction : — Is not so thorough. The phenomena in 
question are wholly material or wholly spiritual— no half- way point. Why not 
accept the pneumatic theory ? It accounts for all facts. Theory stated. Scep- 
ticism unreasonable, and even unscriptural. 

CHAPTEE VI. Transition to Scripture Argument. . . . 87-89 

Greek daimonion not identical with " nervous principle." Jamblichua— who 
be was. His testimony :— Oracles ; Egyptian mediums ; obsession? 



viii Contents, 



CHAPTER VII. Pneumatic Hypothesis.— Teachings of the Bible. . 40-56 
(1) Bible never seems incredulous. (2) Divine legislation examined (Deut. 
xviii. 10-11) ; import of the names used; found to be eight " aliases" of the 
same class; law and history concede the reality of odylic practices. (3) History 
of false prophets examined ; the reality of the prophetic trance ; the distinctive 
quality of true prophecy stated. (4) Ancient oracles explained; Pythoness of 
Philippi; Patristic testimony. (5) The daimonia of the New Testament; 
meaning of the word; Paul at Athens; coincidences found in ancient mytho- 
logy ; Christ and the Sadducees. Demonic possessions not anomalous ; their 
law stated. Theories upon this subject must make account of Biblical phe- 
nomena. Pneumatism an cecumenic conviction. Cicero. 

PART SECOND.— CHARACTER. 

CHAPTER VIII. The Claims, Standards, Diyine Origin and Ethics 

of "Spiritualism." ...... 57-65 

(1) Does not accept Bible as authority, nor array itself against it. Eclectic in 
its aim. Proves immortality. Fulfils prophecy. Admits its own imperfection. 

(2) A true standard of judgment stated — the Bible. Alternative to this, a Ritual 
the only resort. Ancient exorcisms and rituals. Modern tendencies in the same 
direction. (3) Alleged miracles. Inimitable quality of Divine miracles. Com- 
parative meagreness of the modern alleged miracles. (4) Ethics of the movement. 

CHAPTER IX. Theology of " Spiritualism." .... 65-72 
(5) Substantial unity amid great diversity. A small party professes orthodoxy. 
The doctrine of the Resurrection a test of the system. Remarkable coincidence 
between the Egyptian and the " spiritual" 4i theories of another life ;" — " Zones" 
and " spheres." Possible truth in these theories. Isaac Taylor's views highly 
scriptural. Three orders or grades of spirits recognised ; description and power 
of each. To which " order" do these modern spirits belong? 

CHAPTER X. Practical Results.— Conclusion. .... 72-75 
A verdict. Probabilities very strong as to the character of the spirits. Their 
claims are magnificent, but they deny truths of revelation. An immense power 
and fascination in such pursuits. Possible prophetic future. How to meet the 
movement;— by argument ; no harm in hearing what the spirits have to say. 
Personal courtesy due to all. Charity and humility appropriate graces. The 
good that may result from the seeming evil. The End. 



REVIEW. 

The modern "Spiritual Manifestations" claim inves- 
tigation, first, as to their Origin; and second, their 
Character 

PAET FIEST.— ORIGIN. 



CHAPTER I. 



HYPOTHESES STATED. ODYLE. 

Omitting as outgrown the theory of collusion, two 
hypotheses remain : — 

I. Pneumatic ; Natural Law with Spirits. 

II. Apneumatic ; Natural Law without Spirits. 

The facts which constitute the pneumatic argument 
arrange themselves in four classes : — 

Class 1. Mysterious intelligent sounds and move- 
ments. 

Class 2. Involuntary polyglott speaking and writings. 

Class 3. Apparitions. 
1* 



10 Apneumatic Hypothesis. 

Odyle. — Demonstranda.— A universal medium. 

Class 4. Doctrines, revelations, poems, prophecies 
and medical prescriptions, all delivered through the 
above instrumentalities. 

The apneumatic argument responds, that these may 
be the effects of automatic cerebral, a or of automatic 
mental b action, through Odyle. c 

To show this, two things require proof, first, that 
Odyle exists, and second, that through it, automatic 
cerebral or mental action is adequate to the effects 
alleged. 

The existence of a universal medium was suspected 
by the ancients. It was the Qvoig of Hippocrates, Aris- 
totle, and Galen ; d the anima (as opposed to animus) 
of the Komans ; and the Sephiroth of the Jewish 
Cabala. From this " soul of the world" of the pre- 
Platonic orientals all souls are emanations. 6 The 
" demons" of the Greeks, from Plato down to Jambli- 
chus, were nothing but this/ By this the magicians 
of the Nile, and the jugglers of the Ganges, wrought 
their wonders/ This was the true Python, source of 
all divination, magic, and witchcraft, in annals sacred 



* Philosophy of Mysterious Agents, human and mundane: by E. C. Rogers. 
Boston, J. P. Jewett & Co. 1852. 

o "To Daimonion," by Traverse Oldfield. Boston, Gould and Lincoln. 

c Od, or Odyle, the name given by Baron Eeichenbach of Vienna, to a new agent 
identified with animal magnetism. 

d " To Daimonion," pp. 17, 18. f lb. pp. 66, 67, 91, 92. 

e lb. p. 61. s lb. Letters, ix. x. 



Apneumatic Hypothesis. 11 

Modern discoveries.— Properties of Odyle. 

and profane.* This the true secret of the Protean 
wonders of Rhabdomancy, Clairvoyance, and Animal 
Magnetism. 

What the ancients suspected, the moderns have 
demonstrated. In every chemic, or vital function of 
the body, with electricity, another imponderable, di- 
verse from electricity, is evolved. b Three independent 
courses of experiment, by Matteucci, Thilorier and 
Lafontaine, and Reichenbach, coincided with the re- 
port of Arago on Angelique Cottin, in establishing the 
discovery. Transmissible through electric non-con- 
ductors, capable of accumulation in unisolated bodies, 
possessing polarity, residing in the magnet with, but 
distinct from, magnetism, visible in darkness to sensi- 
tive organs, energising from the organism upon nature, 
and reacting from nature upon the organism, it pervades 
the earth and heavenly bodies, is diffused through space, 
and is the agent of the phenomena of clairvoyance. 

Producing when discharged, as in Angelique Cottin, 
by the sub-cerebral centres, unintelligent effects on 
heavy bodies, equal to any of the " manifestations," it 
simulates, when directed by the brain itself, all the 
characteristics of intelligence. 

Tested by Ashburner, d endorsed by Gregory of 



a " To Daimonion," pp. 77, 101, 105, &c. c Eeich. Dyn. Mag. 

b Rogers, §§ 226, 290. a lb. pref. p. v. 



12 Automaton Brain. 



Good nomenclature. — Chapter II. 



Edinburgh, Hitchcock of Amherst, a and others of 
scientific note, the discovery has at least supplied a 
desideratum, by affording a nomenclature of singular 
appropriateness for almost all the anomalies that have 
ever afflicted science. 



CHAPTER II. 

AUTOMATON BRAIN. 



It remains to consider the adequacy of "^tomatic 
cerebral, or mental action. 

Instrumental representative of mind, the brain is 
capable of spontaneous action, without mind. Such 
spontaneous action will be indistinguishable from men- 
tal operations proper. b 

Musicians perform automatically. Printers set type 
mechanically. In revery, all manner of things are 
done unconsciously. 

A servant-maid, delirious with fever, recited pas- 
sages of Hebrew heard many years before. A som- 
nambulic girl, before exhibition, rose by night and 



a Religion of Geology, p. 423-425. " The inquiry seems to have been conducted 
with great fairness and scientific skill, and the author has the confidence of several 
of the most distinguished scientific men in Europe." 

b Rogers, §§ 423, 443. c lb. § 359. 



Automaton Brain. 13 

Somnambulism.— Mrs. Hauffe.— Inaccurate spelling. 

painted at her trial piece with surpassing skill. — 
A somnambulic chess-player, defeated while asleep 
those who beat him when awake. a Every operation, 
from the highest rational to the lowest sensational, 
which brain performs, with mind as irritant, it can 
reproduce, without mind, under specific external irri- 
tants, not even excluding fictitious conscious personal 
identity. 11 

Add the power of rapping and tipping at a dis- 
tance, and one class of the manifestations is accounted 
for. Now Dr. Kerner, chief physician at Weinsberg in 
Germany, states that Mrs. Frederica Hauffe, when in 
the magnetic sleep, could rap at a distance, producing 
a hollow, yet clear sound, soft, but distinct. And Dr. 
Binns mentions a gentleman, who, in a dream, pushed 
against a door in a distant house, so that those in the 
room were scarce able to resist the pressure.* 1 

Of course, if brain without mind can rap, and move 
bodies at a distance, it can so do it as to represent its 
own impressions in the shape of spelled communica- 
tions. In confirmation, the spelling follows the cere- 
bral habit of the medium, being correct or incorrect as 
the medium is educated or illiterate. Thus any impres- 
sion, even though long dormant, or never consciously 



a Rogers, § 439. c Seeress of Prevorst, p. 35 ; comp. Eogers, § 562. 

b Eogers, comp. § 433 and § 442. <* Eogers, § 5S4. 



14 Automaton Braix. 

Two brains. — Spiritual claims accounted for. 

recognised on the brain of the medium, may automat- 
ically reproduce itself. 

Moreover, as the human countenance photographs 
itself upon the sensitive silver plate, which it does not 
touch, so the human brain may odylise itself upon the 
sensitive cerebral plate of the medium which it does 
not touch. Or, as in every cranium two brains unite 
to form a double cerebral unit, so in space two brains 
filmily meshed together by odylic threads may vir- 
tually unite to form a double cerebral unit, the impres- 
sions of the stronger imparting themselves to and 
through the weaker. Thus things never known to the 
medium, apparently, or to any one in the circle, may 
be given forth by the distant automatic agency of some 
co-efficient brain. 

That such communications should affirm themselves 
to be of spiritual origin, is no more wonderful than 
the fictitious personality affirmed by the insane, the 
hypochondriac, or even the dreaming brain. Under 
pathematic treatment, the impressible subject becomes 
whatever the operator pleases, male or female, human, 
divine, or infernal. So by the operation of drugs and 
philtres, as in the case of Madame Eanfaing, a all the 
phenomena of the demonic possession have been per- 
manently established. 

a Sogers, §§ 466, 471. 



Automaton Brain. 15 



Fictitious personality.— Knowledge of the past. 



Now the brain of the medium may be in odylic 
rapport with, the brain of some inmate of a lunatic 
asylum, or of some visionary enthusiast or monomaniac, 
and thus apparently receive communications from 
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine or any other re- 
markable individual. Or it may be en rapport with 
some brain dreaming, or drugged, or pathetised, or 
hallucinated, or intoxicated, or even highly poetic and 
enthusiastic, and thus receive the impress of a coun- 
terfeit personality. 

Thus any high-wrought cerebral excitement may 
telegraph itself across the globe, upon any other brain 
in due odylic rapport, and communicate intelligence 
of then passing events. 

As to events so far in the past that they cannot 
exist in the form of impressions on any living brain, 
it is only necessary to conceive that they have recorded 
themselves eternally upon the all-pervading odylic 
medium. a They may leave their impress, not cog- 
nizable indeed by sense, but real, just as if the shadow 
at which Eve gazed in the fountain had remained a 
fixed, though unsubstantial form of beauty, after she 
departed and for ever ; — or as a fixed star might 
shine for us years after passing from existence. The 
brain of the medium, or its odylic co-efficient, or other 

* Hitchcock's Religion of Geology, pp. 423-425. 



16 Automaton Brain. 

Oracles and " manifestations" local and variable. — Rappings. 

half, comes into such a susceptible state that all these 
phantoms held in odylic suspension, as it were, type 
themselves thereon, and are given forth as beibre 
explained in automatic discharge. 

And even future events, in some such way, may be 
sensed by the brain. 

In confirmation of this, it is found that as anciently 
oracles could be found only in certain localities; as 
only in some regions the divining-rod in the hands 
of the sensitive is affected ; as in some localities only 
the phenomena of haunted houses occur, according as 
the mundane imponderable emanations vary ; so in some 
localities the "manifestations" can be had with greater 
facility than others, the difference being appreciable 
sometimes in different apartments of the same house. a 

By these principles all communications received 
through rapping, tipping, writing, and speaking me- 
diums are accounted for. There remain only voices, 
touches, and musical performances, under classes one 
and two. b Facts are at hand to refer these also to the 
category of automatic cerebral action. 

Mrs. Hauffe, while clairvoyant, seeing at a distance 
the corpse of a relative, exclaimed, "Ah, God!" so 
that the physician by the body heard the words, rose 
and searched the house. 

a Rogers, §§ 612, 650. b Supra, p. 9. c Seeress of Prevorst, p. 85. 



Automaton Brain. 17 

Rev. Joseph Wilkins.— Drummer of Tedworth.— Apparitions. 

Eev. Joseph Wilkins, in a dream, stood in his 
mother's bedroom and said: "Mother, I am going 
a long journey, and am come to bid you good-bye." 
She answered: "Oh, dear son, thou art dead I" A 
letter subsequently informed him that on that night 
his mother, awake, saw him enter, heard him speak, 
and replied as above. a 

Thus the brain, through the intermediate agency 
of the imponderable, produces effects at a distant point, 
as if the person's own physical presence were there. b 

Finally, the drummer of Tedworth, England, (in 
1661,) though in jail, executed on his drum all his 
accustomed points of war, said drum being in the 
house of Mr. Mompesson, at a distance. On the 
same principle, then, all the mysterious performances 
upon guitars and other instruments, touches, voices, 
and writings of manuscripts, may be accounted for. 

The third class d — Apparitions — may easily be ac- 
counted for as having an objective reality. 

" It is a remarkable fact," says Dr. Rogers, " which 
has been found exemplified in a great many instances, 
that when the brain and nervous system are brought 
into immediate relation to the points whence issues the 
mundane force, the odic flame or vapour at that point 



Rogers, § 578. c lb. §§ 594, 607. 

lb. § 583. a Sup. p. 9. 



18 Automaton Brain. 

Apparitions, how produced. — Organic atoms. 

will assume the human form, and indeed will have its 
action repeated there, as if the living being were pres- 
ent instead of its ghost. " a 

Now, the apparition of a dead person, is no more 
the veritable man himself than that of a living person. b 

It may either be objective, produced by chemical 
action in the corpse, as in cases where spectral forms 
and odic vapours are seen by sensitive persons over 
new-made graves, or they may be accounted for as 
subjective. " Every particle, however minute, of 
every living being, is an exact representative of the 
whole organism." " Each particle of the brain is a 
representative of the state of the mind at the time the 
particle was organized." " "We are constantly giving 
off these" representative particles. " Whoever comes 
after us, who has the sense that shall be affected by 
them, shall have represented on the delicately sensi- 
tive brain all the sensuous peculiarities," and "the 
exact mental state," " we exhibited at the time" " they 
were elaborated in the organism." 4 

Thus, the phenomena of class four, e are also ac- 
counted for, except the apparent systematic rise and 
progress of the movement, as if the result of design. 
This is accounted for on the ground of nervous epi- 
demic. 



a Sogers, §§ 544, 545. c Reichenbach's Dynamics, §§ 156, 158. 

b lb. § 568. d Rogers, § 596. e Supra, p. 9. 



Automaton Brain. 19 

Second-sight. — Nervous epidemics. 

It is a law of "second-sight," that whoever touches 
a seer during a vision, is enabled, if impressible, to see 
the same. Sensitive persons, by touching Mrs. Hauife, 
when she had visions of spectres, were made to see 
them also. a 

" Specific cerebral impress is the grand law of all 
nervous epidemics" This law is seen in the history 
of every nervous epidemic of past ages, — in the Tar- 
antalia of Italy, the St. John's dance of Germany, the 
St. Vitus's dance of France, the preaching mania of 
Sweden, the witch mania of Salem and Europe, and the 
" Kentucky jerks." 

This law is seen throughout the entire present 
movement. Every thing has been calculated to create, 
foster and develop the germs of a tremendous nervous 
epidemic. 

If, therefore, all the facts which constitute the pneu- 
matic argument may be accounted for on purely natu- 
ral principles, without spiritual intervention, then the 
supposition of such intervention is unphilosophical, 
and the whole fabric falls to the ground. 

According to this form of the apneumatic argu- 
ment, all the phenomena of clairvoyance, dreams, 
insanity, hallucination, witchcraft, second-sight, appari- 
tions, haunted houses, divination, rhabdomancy, &c, in 

a Rogers, § 670. 



20 Mental Automacy. 

True and false revelation.— Chap. III. — Mental automacy. 

all ages, are not properly spiritual, but physical pro- 
ducts of organized matter alone. Hence the distinc- 
tion between true and false revelations, that the former 
are of the brain solely, mere material produce, while 
the latter are of the spirit, and are properly spiritual 
products. 



CHAPTER III. 



AUTOMATIC OR INVOLUNTARY MENTAL ACTIVITY. 

An argument radically different from this, though 
employing nearly the same induction of facts, is pre- 
ferred by many. 

Admitting automatic cerebral action in part, they 
would unite with it automatic, or involuntary mental 
action. There is, they hold, an activity of the mental 
faculties, which escapes the notice of consciousness. 

There are impressions, not dormant in the brain, 
but stored in the memory . a Odyle, they speak of 
under the phrases " the nervous principle"—" an in- 
termediate agent by which mind acts on matter, and 
which is itself neither mind nor matter," — " neither 
spirit nor matter." b The phenomena of clairvoyance 

a "To Daimonioii," p. 48. b lb. pp. 17, 26, 27. 



Mental Automacy. 21 

Hypothesis accounts for all to facts. 

are, in part at least, abnormal mental effects. The 
soul, being able to avail itself by clairvoyance of 
whatever is lodged in another mind with which it is 
en rapport, unconsciously discharges it by alphabetic 
indications. 21 Some go so far as to suppose the soul by 
clairvoyance may have access to whatever is lodged in 
any mind, stored in books, or even to those . forms of 
all things past, present, and to come, which are held in 
suspension, as it were, in the universal odylic sea, 
and can thus obtain whatever knowledge is necessary. 
That in this state, partly disembodied, as it were, the 
soul has power to rap, speak, hear, appear, and move 
material bodies, as in cases already cited. Now let 
the medium be a clairvoyant ; or, if not, en rapport 
with a clairvoyant in the circle, or at a distance, and 
even if the phenomena are not all fully accounted for, 
at least a probability is created that they can, and will 
be, after maturer scientific investigation. 13 The move- 
ment, as a whole, is a "wide-spread excitement of a 
nervous nature." A " mental disease." A mental 
and moral epidemic. 

Many of the statements are no doubt unintention- 
ally exaggerated. They show marks of superficial 
observation, rash unscientific experiment, excited 
imagination, easy credulity, and premature decision. 

a " To Daimonion, 1 ' pp. 41, 42. b lb pp. 12, 13. c lb. p. 150. 



22 Mental Automacy. 

Disappointed seekers. — Cicero's verdict. 

Under rigid rules of experiment, the tone and hue of 
the picture is materially changed. The tint becomes 
neutral which was a moment before brilliant and blaz- 
ing. Prodigious physical demonstrations, precise and 
startling intellectual communications, are abundant in 
boohs. Yet, seek them, and they are like the desert 
mirage. Tests are eluded, experiment eschewed. 
An obsequious faith is demanded in developments 
confused, vague, and imbecile. Is it not more proba- 
ble that manifestations so mediocre in talent, frivolous 
in character, contradictory in sentiment, inimical to 
evangelical religion, health, reason, and social weal, 
should be the results of mental disease, than of a new 
spiritual revelation ? 

Nay, in view of their frequent mercenary character, 
and the contrast between their high-sounding promise 
and its slender fulfilment, may we not say with 
Cicero : 

" Now I own that I have no confidence in fortune- 
tellers, mercenary soothsayers, nor Circles. 51 Such are 
divine neither by science nor by art ; priests' of super- 
stition, impudent prophets, imbecile, insane or hunger- 
bitten. Ignorant of the road, they show it to others ; 
promising riches, they beg a penny. From the promised 
store they appropriate their penny, the rest is yours." b 



a Psychomantia, "Places where one inquires any thing of the spirits of the dead." 
t> De Divinatione, lib. i. cap. 58. [Leveretf s Lat. Lewicon.] 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. 23 



Chap. IV. — Pneumatic reviews the Apneumatic. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

PNEUMATIC HYPOTHESIS. 

The pneumatic argument is primarily a statement 
of facts, a and of a claim inwrought, of spiritual causa- 
tion. To this the apneumatic argument appears as 
respondent. Now, then, the pneumatic enters, in turn, 
to review and defend. 

Admitting the odylic character of the phenomena, 
it is claimed, simply, that spirits act in their produc- 
tion by odylic law. Whatever, therefore, modifies the 
odylic conditions, modifies the access and operation 
of spirits. 

The discussion may be conveniently divided into 
the philosophic and the biblical. 

I. — Philosophic Argument. 
The theory of automatic cerebral action is objec- 
tionable : 

1. Because it is equally valid against the existence 

a Supra, 9 et seq. 



24 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 

Apneumatic Hypothesis disproves all souls. — Materialism. - 

of the soul as distinct from the brain. If God "has 
endowed that form of matter which composes the 
brain, the organs of the mind, with exactly those 
properties which enable it, under whatever irritant, to 
represent in its action precisely those characteristics 
which the mind possesses," 51 then external "irritants" 
alone can account for all mental phenomena. True, 
there may be an internal spiritual "irritant," a soul. 
Dr. Rogers believes there is one. But " a posse ad esse 
non valet consequential It is as unphilosophical to 
suppose a spiritual "irritant" or soul for all mental 
phenomena, as to suppose spiritual "irritants" for the 
"manifestations," provided both can be accounted for 
without. 

This is precisely the argument of avowed mate- 
rialists. "In all our inquiries as to the phenomena 
of mind," says a distinguished writer of this school, a 
" we should endeavour to ascertain how many of them 
are explicable from the mere phenomena of the body, 
and call in the hypothesis of a superadded principle 
of intellect then only when the known properties 
of organised matter will explain no more. So far 
as I can yet see, every intellectual fact, by whatever 
form or phrase it may be described, is no other than 



a Eogers, § 442. 

d Thomas Cooper, M. D., formerly President of South Carolina College. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 25 

Apneurnatists and Materialists agree. 

the usual normal function or mode of action of the 
organ called the brain — some motion in, and modi- 
fication of the cerebral or encephalic viscus." a "Were 
there time, it might be shown that every point made 
against " the spirits" by Dr. Rogers — for example, from 
drugs, sickness, insanity, intoxication, hypochondria, 
hallucination, automatic action, &c, is made with equal 
force by Dr. Cooper against the soul. The same keen 
thrusts are made by both. Thus to a medium a physi- 
cian u at once prescribed a few blue pills, and then a 
dose of calomel and rhei. It is sufficient to say, that 
through the medium of these smart cathartics, the spirits 
made their exit in high dudgeon."" With equal pun- 
gency, Dr. Cooper makes the same point against the 
soul : " Our ideas also are produced and modified by 
substances exhibited to us and acting medicinally ; but 

as Judge C has said in his medical jurisprudence, 

1 Hoio can you exhibit a dose of glauber-salts to the 
soul?'" Nor is Dr. Cooper alone. So reason Hart- 
ley, Cabanis, Destut Tracey, Lawrence, and others of 
physiological fame — so the whole class of psycho- 
pannichists, from Priestley down to Dobney. Nor 



a Broussais on Insanity, translated by Thomas Cooper, M. D., to which are added 
two tracts on Materialism, and an outline of the association of ideas. Columbia, S. O, 
S. J. McMorris, 1881. p. 334 

b Eogers, § 463. 

c " Arguments in favour of Materialism," p. 353. 

2 



26 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 

" Automatic contingent" a contradiction. 

could the disciples of the latter school in any way 
more effectually promote their ends than by a repub- 
lication of Dr. Rogers's book condensed, with Dr. 
Cooper's tracts on Materialism appended. The argu- 
ment, therefore, proves too much, and falls to the 
ground. 

2. The argument fails, because automatic contingent 
operations involve a self-contradiction. 

For brain to discharge sentences drilled in, is one 
thing ; to adapt answers not drilled in, quite another. 
Maelzel never constructed automata to answer ad libitum 
questions. Vaucanson made a duck to quack, waddle, 
eat, digest, but not to be frightened. An automaton 
chess-player is impossible, and a Babbage's calculating 
machine possible, because in the one case contingency 
can not, in the other can, be excluded. A musical 
machine might possibly be contrived to extemporise 
variations on themes given at will, since the laws of 
counterpoint, as of figures, may exclude contingency ; 
but it could never improvise an accompaniment to 
an ad libitum vocal performer. Galvanic helices can 
give a reciprocating motion, and regulate speed by 
a governor, but not stop the motion altogether, and 
recommence it at contingent intervals. The telegraphic 
machine may be made to work by passing electric 
clouds, but not to arrange alphabetic marks into re- 
sponsive colloquial phrases. Equally impossible is 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 27 

George Inman's message.— Author a witness. 

it for the odic current (if there be a current) in the 
helix-circle (if it be a helix-circle) a to break and renew 
itself, so as to move a table contingently in reference 
to the emergencies of a shifting conversation. 

And if it were conceded possible, its probability is 
innnitesimally small, not affecting the calculus. 

Thus in a circle, 15 the table addresses itself to a 
young man, A. B., and says, " I met you in Rome. 
George Inman." A. B. remembers no such person. 
The table is asked to assist his memory, and replies, 
"Cigars — not burn." Yet A. B. remains oblivious. 
Nor can any of his friends who travelled with him 
recall any person of that name, nor any incident 
suggestive of incombustible cigars. How improbable 
that automatic breaks of the odic current, one hundred 
and twenty-one in number, reckoning three to each 
letter, should happen to adjust themselves so as to 
bring out this particular one of the myriad impressions 
made on A. B.'s brains in the Eternal City ; that this 
fictitious personality should obstinately reveal itself at 
several successive sittings, to the chagrin of all, and 
finally, that after a circuit through medium and table 
back to the brain whence it started it should still be 
unable to bring itself to its own memory. The im- 



a " To Daimonion," p. 146. 

t> The writer witnessed the fact now mentioned. 



28 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 

Apneumatic hypothesis leads to extravagance and absurdity. 

probability is little less than infinite, and that is 
equivalent to an impossibility. 

3. The attempt to carry out the principle con- 
sistently pushes the mind into extravagance. 

That mind, separating itself partially from the 
body, even during this life, should be able to energise 
at a distance, though mysterious, is not incredible. 
Cicero recognises it. Jamblichus builds on it. It is 
easy to conceive a law by which it should be. But to 
say that brain can push a door open at a distance, 
project odic spectra visible and audible to distant 
observers, perform on distant musical instruments, 
and, in short, do whatever the person would do if 
physically present ; or that every particle of the body 
is a miniature of the whole, and that these, constantly 
exhaling, remain for years, and coming in contact with 
sensitive brains produce visions of the person, and his 
precise sensuous and mental state at the time the 
particle was elaborated — these, though stated as "facts" 
in a scientific treatise, are not only unsustained by 
evidence, but shocking to the common mind. 

The traveller 3 - who tells us that the tunes frozen 
into the horn from his postillion's lip, by the intense 
cold of a Russian winter, thawed themselves out at the 
inn, to the surprise of the company, might have en- 

a Travels, by Baron Munchausen. New York, Nafis and Cornish, pp. 19, 20. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 29 

Parallel hypothesis of early geologists. — Cicero. 

hanced the extravagance of his tale by affirming that 
the postillion's brain did it, automatically, to his own 
as well as the company's astonishment. 

Nor does it lessen the extravagance by alleging 
that it is done through the "mundane imponderable." 
So early geologists accounted for fossil marine shells, 
by fermentations of a certain "materia pinguis," or by 
the "lapidifying juice," or by a "plastic force," or by 
the "tumultuous movements of terrestrial exhalations." 
Fossil elephants' tusks were " earthy concretions," and 
the vases of Monte Testaceo, at Rome, were "natural 
impressions stamped in the soil." a 

If scientific men allow themselves to be carried 
away by such vagaries, they must expect to divide 
with philosophers the reproach of Cicero's remark. 
"How it is, I know not, but there is nothing can 
be mentioned so absurd as not to have been said by 
some one of the philosophers." 13 



a Principles of Geology, by Charles Lyell, book i. chap. iii. 
b De Divinatione, lib. ii. cap. 58. 



30 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 

Chap. V. — Objections to the theory of mental automacy. 



CHAPTER V. 

MENTAL AUTOMACY UNSATISFACTORY. 

4. The theory of automatic mental* action is ob- 
jectionable, in part for the same reasons. Like the 
other, it may be summed up in a word, as an attempt 
to prove that intelligent manifestations can be pro- 
duced unintelligently. Thus overthrowing the founda- 
tions of all argument from design to a designer. And 
this, too, in regard to the most common manifestation, 
viz., "spelling." The contradiction between automatic 
or involuntary mental agency and contingent results 
is as great as between automatic cerebral and the same. 
But either there must be intentional deception, (which 
is not now pretended,) or else the spelling must be in- 
voluntary. Here there is the contradiction of involun- 
tary contingent adaptation as before. 

Furthermore, this theory is far less thorough-going 
than the other. Admit that the phenomena are the 
work of spirits at all, and the conclusion cannot be re- 

a Supra, Chap. III. passim. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 31 

Dreams, trances, Ac— Mrs. Hauffe, Gilbert Tennent. — Cicero. 

sisted that they are disembodied spirits. For what do 
the facts conceded imply that the embodied spirit can 
do ? It can, by some means, appear at a distance from 
its own body, speak audibly, hear answers, move 
bodies, perform on instruments, and do whatever it 
would do through the body if that were present. 1 It 
can obtain access to the contents of other minds, reveal 
distant events, past, present, and future. But if so, 
the further concession of a temporary going forth of 
soul from body cannot long be withheld. Mrs. Hauffe 
firmly declared that her soul left the body and re- 
turned. Gilbert Tennent, to the day of his death, 
believed that during that long and death-like trance 
his soul left the body. All clairvoyants testify to the 
same. In this way Cicero accounts for prophetic 
dreams : "In dreams the soul hath a vigour free from 
sense and disenthralled of every care, the body lying 
death-like. And since she hath existed from all eter- 
nity, and been acquainted with innumerable minds, 
she beholdeth all things that are in rerum natura." b 

All the writings of antiquity are eloquent with this 
grand idea. 

But once admit this of the soul before death, and 
how can it be denied after ? 

Take, for example, the instance given by Cicero, as 



a Eogers, §§ 5S4, 562, 594, 60T. Comp. Seeress of Prevorst, p. 35. 
l> De Divinatione, lib.i. c. 51. 



32 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Rejoinder. 

Stoics' case. — Dying testimony of Mrs. Hauffe. 



a favourite with the Stoics : Two Arcadians stopped 
at Megara, one at an inn, the other at a friend's. At 
midnight, the former appeared to the latter, asking help, 
for the innkeeper was about to murder him. Eoused 
in affright, the latter thought it a dream, and again slept. 
His friend again appeared, asking him, as he had not 
come to him alive, to avenge him dead; as the inn- 
keeper had now slain him, and concealed his body in 
a cart under dirt. In the morning he met the cart as 
directed, found the corpse, and the innkeeper was 
executed.* 

Here, if it be admitted that the soul appeared at a 
distance from the body before death, how can it be 
denied that it did the same after ? 

Furthermore, if the soul do after death come in 
contact with the spirit throngs that environ us, how 
deny that it does the same when severed from the 
body before death ? 

How resist the firm persuasion of Gilbert Tennent, 
and others, that he did actually converse with spirits? 
Why should not a sleep so deep as to be like death 
produce in part death's results, in introducing the spirit 
to scenes behind the veil ? 

Is there no weight in the impressive declaration of 
the almost dying Mrs. Hauffe, that while all sorts of 

a De Div. lib. i. c 27. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Defence. 33 

The dilemma, spirit or matter. — Pneumatism in defence. 

ocular illusions passed before her eyes, yet " it was im- 
possible to express how entirely different these ocular illusions 
were to the real discerning of spirits ; and she only wished 
other people were in a condition to compare these two hinds 
of perception with one another, both of which were equally 
distinct from our ordinary perception, and also from that 
of the second-sight."* 

Yet, if such converse with the dead be admitted, 
in even one well-authenticated instance, the whole 
apneumatic argument falls. With all the gross conse- 
quences, then, of the cerebral hypothesis, it is the only 
alternative. Its able author judged wisely, that the 
only effectual defence against pneumatic agency is to 
make the phenomena material altogether. 

5. If, then, such difficulties embarrass the apneu- 
matic hypothesis, why not adopt the pneumatic? It 
is an admitted principle of science, that that theory is 
preferable which accounts most naturally for all the 
facts known. The pneumatic theory accounts for all 
facts alleged by the other theories as well as either of 
them ; for some better ; and for many which they can- 
not account for at all without absurdity. 

One of the facts most relied on by the apneumatic 
argument is the mis-spelling, which, it is asserted, always 
follows the habit of the medium. Such, however, is 



a Seeress of Prevorst, p. 118. 

2* 



34 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Defence. 

Mis-spelling explained. — Drugs, &c. — Nervous epidemics. 

not the fact. Cases are on record of mis-spelled com- 
munications coming through mediums who could spell 
correctly, much to their chagrin. a But even if the 
fact were as claimed, it might be accounted for either 
by supposing that illiterate mediums attracted illiterate 
spirits, or by supposing that spirits, in order to com- 
municate, are obliged partially to incarnate themselves 
in the body of the medium, and to take on, in part, its 
organic and mental habits. 

So also of the influence of drugs, manipulations, dis- 
eases The pneumatic theory is, that as the soul may 
by these means be assisted, or disabled, in the use of its 
own brain, so disembodied spirits may, in the use of 
an invaded brain. When the odylic conditions are by 
these means prepared, the spirit can insinuate itself; 
when they are by these means destroyed, it is com- 
pelled to forego its hold. So in regard to nervous epi- 
demics. The theory is, that these may exist without 
the agency of disembodied spirits. But that ivhen they 
exist, developing proper odylic conditions, spirits may 
be expected to take advantage of them. Hence, to find 
cases of nervous epidemics, where no indications of 
spiritual agency are apparent, proves nothing, except 
that the odvlic conditions were not favourable. 



a- A striking instance of this is given in Tlie Spiritual Telegraph. New-York, 
Charles Partridge. No. 34. " What manner of Spirit ?" 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Defence. 35 

Scepticism is unphilosophic— Isaac Taylor. 

"While, then, the pneumatic hypothesis accounts for 
all the facts adduced by the other theories, as well as 
they, it also accounts naturally for other facts by which 
they are embarrassed. It is, therefore, probably the 
true hypothesis. And before rejecting it, let that say- 
ing of Isaac Taylor's be well pondered, that we ought 
not to reject the almost universal belief of occasional 
supernatural interference till we can prove an impossi- 
bility. " An absolute scepticism on this subject can 
be maintained only by the aid of Hume's oft-repeated 
sophism, that no testimony can establish an alleged 
fact which is at variance with common experience ; 
for it must not be denied that some few instances of 
the sort alluded to rest upon testimony in itself 
thoroughly unimpeachable ; nor is the import of the 
evidence in these cases at all touched by the now well- 
understood doctrine concerning spectral illusions." 51 

Now the apneumatic argument virtually implies an 
impossibility of establishing the reality of spiritual 
communication by any amount of evidence. Suppose 
a departed spirit, the wife of Oberlin for example, 
were permitted to attempt to converse with her hus- 
band — not to establish a new revelation, not to display 
divine power, but merely to exercise such potentiality 
as might pertain to a disembodied spirit, for her own 

a Physical Theory of Another Life, p. 215. 



36 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Defence. 

Apneumatism implies that pneumatic evidence is impossible. 

and her husband's edification and satisfaction. How 
could she do it, in the face of the apneumatic theories 
under consideration? She speaks to him, moves his 
furniture, touches his dress, his person ; — all automatic 
action of some brain en rapport with that locality. 
She sings, plays the guitar or piano, takes a pencil and 
writes, and he sees the pencil in free-space tracing his 
wife's autograph ; — automatic still. She shows him a 
cloudy hand — nay, a luminous form, and smiles and 
speaks as when in life; that is an optical illusion, or 
hallucination, or a particle exhaled from her body has 
impinged on his sensitive brain, and created a sub- 
jective vision. She communicates facts, past, present, 
and future, beyond the scope of his knowledge; that 
might be clairvoyance or cerebral sensing. Alas ! then, 
what could she do more ? She must retire baffled, and 
complaining that he had become so scientific that all 
communication with him was impossible. 

But if the denial of the pneumatic hypothesis be 
unphilosophical, it is no less unscriptural. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. 37 



Chap. TI. — Nature of the " demon" of the Greeks. — Jamblichus. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TRANSITION TO SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 

By way of transition, it may be well to consider 
a moment Traverse Oldneld's strange idea that the 
Greek dai^cjviov was nothing but the nervous prin- 
ciple; and to give a little prominence to the ancient 
universal belief touching converse with the dead, for 
it is in the light of that belief that the language of the 
sacred writers may be best understood. Let us hear 
one into whom seems distilled the quintessence of 
Egyptian and Chaldee, not to say Hebrew, Greek, and 
Roman, doctrine on this matter. 

Jamblichus, perhaps, had read those valuable man- 
uscripts, 4 on curious arts, burned at Ephesus in Paul's 
day, and those two volumes by Chrj^sippus, afterward 
edited in one by Diogenes Babylonins, in two by Anti- 
pater, and in five by Posidon, of which Cicero speaks. b 
Thus infiltrations of ancient occult lore, percolating clear 



a Ac. 19:19— valued at some say $7,500, others $28,000. 
. b De Divinatione, lib. i. ch. 4. 



38 Pneumatic Hypothesis. 

Ancient Egyptian " mediums," like the modern. 

of sediment through manifold mental strata, sparkle 
at last in this Coelo- Syrian cave. The arch-pagan, 
Porphyry, it seems, had written a sceptical letter to 
an Egyptian priest, Anebo, filled with sly questions 
on divination. Jamblichus, his own disciple, answered 
it in the work before us. After describing the epiph- 
anies of the seven orders of superior beings, he thus 
speaks of the effects on the mediums. 

"Some are agitated throughout the whole body, 
others in some of their members, others, again, are 
entirely quiet. Sometimes there are pleasing harmo- 
nies, dances and according-voices, and sometimes the 
reverse. Again, the body either appears taller, or 
larger, or is borne aloft through the air, or is affected 
by the opposite of these." a 

From the characteristics here and elsewhere noted 
by this author, it is evident that the "mediums" now 
are like those of the remotest antiquity. 

Did Jamblichus, then, writing in the name of all 
antiquity, imagine these phenomena to result merely 
from a disturbance of the nervous principle? "'If 
prophecy be only the liberation of the diviner part 
of the soul," he answers, "or a sequestration or intensi- 
fication of mind, or a more forcible and exaggerated 



a- Jamblichus, De Mysteriis. Oxonii, E. Theatro Sheldoniano, a. d. 1678. Sec. 
iii. c. 5. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. 39 

Ancient phenomena not material but spiritual. 

grade of action or passion, or an acuter or more con- 
centrated thought or fervor of soul, then might inspira- 
tion be accounted subjective." " Moreover, if the body, 
in virtue of temperament, e. g., bilious or other ; or on 
account of innate heat, cold, moisture, or any quality 
composite of these ; or by some ethereal fluid, or by 
excess or defect of all these ; — be considered the cause 
of the inspired rapture, then it might be regarded as 
a corporeal phenomenon, and accounted for by natural 
causes. Or if it takes its origin from soul and body 
both, viewed as a compound, still it would be connected 
with both parts. 

"But, in truth, inspiration is the work neither of 
soul nor body, nor of their entire compound. The 
true cause is no other than illumination emanating 
from the very Grods themselves, and spirits coming 
forth from them, and an obsession by which they 
hold us fully and absolutely, absorbing all our faculties 
even, and exterminating all human motions and opera- 
tions, even to consciousness itself; bringing discourses 
which they who utter them do not understand, but 
pronounce with furious lip, so that our whole being 
becomes secondary and subservient to the sole power 
of the occupying Grod." a 

a Jamblichus, De Myst. sec. iii. c. 5. 



40 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bibl; 

General tenor of Scripture. — Divine legislation. 



CHAPTER VII. 

teaching of the bible. 

This doctrine of obsession, being the universal 
faith of the Old World, we are prepared to understand 
the language of the Bible. 

II. — Scripture Argument. 

1. The reality of necromancy being the universal 
belief, there is no vestige of incredulity in the Bible. 
It never inserts " pretended," or " so-called." A modern 
incredulist could not use its dialect of implicit confi- 
dence without a blush and an apology. Therefore it is 
evident that the Bible writers shared the oecumenical 
belief. 

2. The divine legislation sanctions that belief. The 
law describes the class to be suppressed under various 
names or aliases. 1 

(a) s^sfe. lD&jp Diviners of divination. 

(b) "pisfc. Cultivators of occult arts. 

a Deut, xviii. 10, 11, 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 41 

Examination of Deuteronomy xviii. 10, 11. 

(c) ttiftJ)?. A general name for any kind of diviner ; 
not, as Oldfield imagines, a Psylli, or serpent charmers, 
alone. For example, " Is it not this (the cup) in which my 
lord drin keth and whereby he divineth?" (b tin* ffi*fi|) 
But did Psylli charm serpents with cups? 

(d) &ffita>p. Employers of magical formulas or incan- 
tations ; whether (pdpfiafcoi, as Oldfield, following the 
Septuagint, supposes, 13 or not. 

(e) inn ^ri. Fascinators, binders of magic knots. 
(/) h 3*??« The knowing, or wise wizards. 

(g) sia bais. Consulters of a departed spirit. 

Observe here, that " eyyaorpifivdoi" is the Septuagint 
commentary on the Hebrew, not a translation ; and 
" ventriloquist" is also a commentary as well as a 
translation of eyyacrpifivOoi. Hence, through this com- 
mentary on a commentary, the true sense of the origi- 
nal is lost. By ventriloquism, Oldfield understands the 
art as now practised. By Eyyaarpi\ivQoi the Septuagint 
means obsessed persons, out of whose abdomen spirits 
spoke. The original Hebrew, however, means simply 
a consulter, or inquirer of a departed spirit. To show 
this, we transcribe from Bobinson so much of his defi- 
nition of tfa as relates to this subject.* " A necro- 
mancer, or sorcerer, a conjurer, who professes to call 



a " To Daimonion," p. 114. c lb. pp. 114, 115. 

d Eobinson's Gesenius 1 Heb. and Eng. Lexicon, art Sijfc. 



42 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

Examination of Deuteronomy continued. 

up the dead by means of incantations and magic for- 
mulas, in order that they may give response to future 
things.* Specially put for (a) the divining spirit, the fore- 
boding demon, or python, supposed to be present in the 
body of such a conjurer} 3 Thus, ' the man or woman 
(nia tins mp m *ti) that hath the spirit of divination.' 
English, ' familiar spirit.' [Literally, ' the man or 
woman that there is in them a spirit.'] Again, 
(nta i]b ^-^op) ' divine unto me by the foreboding 
spirit.' d [Literally, ' by the spirit.'] Whence such a 
sorcerer is called (nia r^&n ti»») ' A woman in whom 
is a divining spirit.' 6 [Literally, 'A woman, mistress 
of a spirit.'] Put for (b) the dead, the shade, or spirit 
evoked : thus, ' Thy voice shall be (f -tfftia aiao) like a 
shade out of the ground.'' ,,( Such being the definition, 
pass to : 

(h) d^arrta Em. Seekers unto the dead. The 
word tffri is used in the familiar phrase, " to seek the 
Lord." " Seekers of God," is a common expression for 
pious worshippers. Also in the passages " to inquire 
of the Lord," i. e., by the oracle. So also to inquire of 
Baal, and pagan oracles. Coupled with (irtfcrrj*) "to 
the dead," its meaning is too obvious to require argu- 



& Compare 1 Sam. xxviii. 7; Is. viii. 19, and xxix. 3; 2 Kings xxi. 6; 2 Chron. 
xxxiii. 6 ; also, in plural, Lev. xix. 21, and xx. 6 ; 1 Sam. xxviii. 8, 9. 
b Comp. Acts xvi. 16. 

c Lev. xx. 27. e lb. 

d 1 Sam. xxviii. 8. f Is. xxix. 4. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 43 

Summary of exegesis.— Saul and Samuel 

merit. And the two expressions, " consul ters of de- 
parted spirits," and " seekers unto the dead," are seen 
to correspond. 

These, then, are not " eight different species of this 
control over nervous influence, " a as Oldfield declares, 
but eight descriptive titles, or aliases, of one and the 
same general class. They all, doubtless, were either 
odylic operators, or subjects, the hypothesis being that 
spirits can only obtain access through prepared odylic 
conditions. But that they were mere odylic adepts, 
pretenders, destitute of spiritual aid, can never be ad- 
mitted on any safe principles of interpretation. The 
law denounced death against them, not for pretending 
to do what they could not, but for doing what they 
ought not ; not for odylic arts, in themselves compara- 
tively harmless, but for those inevitable issues in con- 
verse with the dead, which reflected back upon them 
its hue of guilt. 

Saul so understood it. To him the evoking of 
spirits was no pretence. Else he would never in de- 
spair, have sought responses through the very impos- 
tors he had well-nigh exterminated. Nor would God 
have suffered one of Israel's most illustrious prophets 
to be "disturbed," and "called up" at the beck of a 
mock- sorceress, as if for the express purpose of confirm- 

a " To Daimonion," p. 113. 



44 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

Reason for the severe penalty. — Prophetic trances. 

ing by a special case, not only Saul's, but the world's 
delusion. 

Both the law and the history therefore concede the 
reality of the practice doomed with death, and the rea- 
son of the penalty is manifest. Polytheism was the 
disease to be cauterised. The worship of the dead was 
the root of polytheism. Converse with the dead was 
the root of worship. Odylic arts were the root of con- 
verse. Therefore the law struck at the root, by pro- 
hibiting the whole on pain of death. 

3. Connect with this the history of the false prophets. 
Eivals of the true, holding for ages their ascendency, in 
spite of genuine miracles, Scripture never denies them 
a supernatural inspiration, nor bases the distinction of 
true and false on physiological grounds. Hence, in 
passing, another fatal defect of the automatic cerebral 
theory. It cuts up by the roots large portions of the 
prophetic scriptures. It declares that "the true seer 
seeks not the divine in the TEANCE," a and that " all 
revelation that pretends to come from the spiritual 
world, only on condition of its passage through an 
automatic medium, is impossible, and its pretension a 
libel on the name of spirit, and a reproach on the 
character of divine wisdom. " b But was not " Saul 
also among the prophets " ? And was he not an 

a Rogers, note to § 509. b Rogers, p. 20T. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 45 

Totor, Daniol, and John.— Nature of inspiration. 

" automaton medium," when " the Spirit of God was 
upon him also, and he went on and prophesied till he 
came to Naiotli in Kamah, and stripped off his clothes, 
and fell down all that day and that night" ? a Did not 
Peter " fall into a trance, and see heaven opened, and 
a certain vessel descending, &c." ? b Was not Daniel a 
true seer, and an " automaton medium," when, after a 
three weeks' fast, he saw a vision his attendants saw 
not, lost all strength, and " heard the voice of his 
words, in a deep sleep, on his face on the ground"? 
"Were the sublime glories of the Apocalypse a reproach 
on the character of the divine wisdom, because John 
saw them for the most part while " in the spirit," and his 
body lying " wo- vexpog" on the surf-beaten Egean shore ? d 
Such a physiological test is crude and unauthorised, rul- 
ing out of the canon as it must a large portion of what 
holy men of God spake " vnb Trvevfiarog ayiov ^epofievoiP^ 
True prophecy depended, not on the physiological con- 
ditions of the prophet, which were doubtless odylic, 
and the same in all, whether true or false, but on the 
Being or beings with whom by those conditions he was 
brought in contact. Thus, of the true prophet, it is 
written : " The hand of the Lord was upon him." And, 



a 1 Sam. xix. 23, 24. <* Eev. L 10, 17. 

b Acts x. 10, 11. e 2 Pet. i. 21. 

c Dan. x. 2-11. 



4G Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

False prophets.— Oracles. — Pythoness of Philippi. 

whether by dream, vision, trance, or open converse 
face to face, it was the Lord who communicated with 
him. Of the false, it is written that the Lord put a 
lying spirit in their mouths, as in the case of Ahab's 
prophets, where, previous to their obsession, Micaiah 
saw the evil spirit and heard him speak. a 

4. Here also we obtain the true theory of the ancient 
oracles. No doubt they were odylic, and employed 
whatever odylic excitements they could ; — drugs, mani- 
pulations, local exhalations, with tricks and jugglery as 
collateral securities. But mark, whenever odylic con- 
ditions are right, spirits can no more be repressed from 
communicating than water from jetting through the 
crevices of a dyke. Some responses, doubtless, were 
cunning double-entendres ; some, the result of mere 
clairvoyance, but some were genuine. The pythoness b 
of Philippi was such, as the oracles employed. If she 
was genuine, they were. Now Paul addressed, not her, 
but the " TTvevfia irvduvog" (the ni» of the Old Testa- 
ment). " I command thee, in the name of Jesus Chri§t, 
to come out of her" Luke says it obeyed. Her mas- 
ters, enraged, saw their gains at an end. Did, then, her 
power of deception, or her " nervous principle," or 
her odylic condition, forsake her? Either Paul, Luke, 
her employers, and the world, were deceived, or she 

a 1 Kings xxii. 19-23. b Acts xvi. 16. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 47 

Patristic testimony.— -New Testament "devils." 



was genuine. But if she was, the oracles were, and if 
tliev were, the mediums are. 

It may, perhaps, be interesting to some to know that 
the genuineness of the oracles was conceded by Justin 
Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Alexandria, Tatian, 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, 
Chrysostom, Cyril Alexandrmns, and others of the 
Greek fathers, and by Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Tertul- 
lian, Lactantius, Maternus-Firnicius, Jerome, Angustine, 
and others of the Latin. Thus Augustine, " They [the 
spirits] for the most part foretell what they are about to 
perform ; for often they receive pow r er to send diseases 
by vitiating the atmosphere. Sometimes they predict 
what they foresee by natural signs, which signs trans- 
cend human sense ; at others they learn, by outward 
bodily tokens, human plans even though unspoken, and 
thus foretell things to the astonishment of those igno- 
rant of the existence of such plans." 3, 

5. Next, as bearing on the question, are the demons, 
(falsely translated "devils") of the New Testament. 
The first question is as to the meaning of the word. 
Plato's definition is, " every demon is a middle being 
between God and mortal men." b This definition em- 



a Kiel Opuscula Academica, ch. iii. 

b Sympos. pp. 202, 203, torn. iii. ed. Serran. Cited by Kitto, vol. i. page 547, and 
by Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, p. 422. 

Apuleius, De Deo Socratis, p. 690, cited as before. 
Plato, Timoeus, pp. 41, 42, 69, 67, 71, 75. 



48 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

Demons of the New Testament. — Athenian superstition. 

braces : (a) Spirits that never were incarnate, good and 
bad : a (b) Departed spirits of the good, — thus Hesiod, of 
the men of the golden age, writes, " after death they 
were by Jupiter promoted to be demons ;" — and Plato, 
" when good men die, they attain honour and become 
demons." (c) Of wicked men, deceased. " It was also be- 
lieved," says Kitto, " that the souls of bad men became 
evil demons, b accordingly, daijiovtog often occurs in 
ancient authors as a term of reproach." 

What, then, was the meaning of the word in the New 
Testament Greek ? Philo says that souls and demons 
are different names for the same thing. The Epicu- 
reans and Stoics called Paul (Zevov daifiovtov KarayyeXevg) 
a setter forth of foreign demons, viz., rbv ^lr\aovv nat ttjv 
'Avdoraotv, two defunct personages that had a somewhat 
foreign sound (^evi^ovra tlvcl). Paul retorted that they 
were (SeioiSaifioveorepovg,) too worshipful of demons, 
and mentions as proof, that among their altars he had 
found one inscribed, ayvCdorix* 6e&. But how did that 
show them to be deLotdaifioveo-epovg ? The answer is, 
because all their gods were demons, i. e., dead men. 
" All Pagan antiquity affirm," says Dr. Campbell, "that 
from Titan and Saturn, the poetic progeny of Ccelus 



a Cratylus, p. 35S, torn. 1. ed. Serran. 

b Chalcid. in Platon. Tim. cap. 135, p. 380. 

c Kitto, vol. i. p. 547. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 49 

The Baalim identical with the demons of the New Testament. — Oracles. 

and Terra, down to Escnlapius, Proteus, and Minos, 
all their divinities were ghosts of dead men, and were 
so regarded by the most erudite of the pagans them- 
selves." Hence that "unknown god" was but another 
demon, or departed spirit, and therefore they were 
justly called too worshipful of demons. These demons 
are the same with the Baalim of the Old Testament. 
The whole Greek mythology had an oriental origin. 
The Baalim were "lords," heroes, deified dead men. 
Hence it is said, " They joined themselves to Baal 
Peor, they ate the sacrifices of the dead;" 3 - — the two lines 
of the parallelism repeating the same idea in a differ- 
ent form. Hence, also, when Moses and Daniel affirm, 
" They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto 
b*t*T» (literally, "lords," "rulers,") the meaning is ob- 
vious, tf**W being a synonym of Baalim, and put for 
it, (hence well rendered by the Septuagint " daipovia.") 
They sacrificed their sons and daughters unto demons 
or deified dead men. b The Jews before Christ, and the 
Fathers after, believed that these departed spirits lurked 
in images, spoke in oracles, controlled omens, and in 
various ways encouraged men to worship them. Can 
there be any doubt, then, that the Apostle employs 
the word in this sense, when he significantly declares 
that the idol itself is nothing, and the offering nothing, 

» Ps. cvL 28. b Ps. cvi. 37 ; Deut. xxxii. IT. 



50 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

Concurrent testimony.— Joseph us, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, and others. 

but that (a 6vei rd IQvt\ 6ai\iovioiq Bvel^ what the Gen- 
tiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God. 
Thus far the term in the New Testament is used, then, 
for departed spirits. As to the cases of possession, let 
Joseph us indicate the popular belief: "Demons are no 
other than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into 
men and kill them unless they obtain help against 
them." 

Compare with this the patristic uses : " Those persons 
who are seized and thrown down by the souls of the de- 
ceased," says Justin Martyr, "are such as all men agree 
in calling demoniacs." Lactantius, speaking of the 
fruit of angelic amours, d says that after death " they 
were not received ad inferos, and thus were produced 
terrestrial demons." Tertullian says the same. Athen- 
agoras says, " the souls of the giants are the demons 
wandering over the world." 6 

Indeed, it is generally admitted even by the oppo- 
nents of the reality of demonic possessions, " that it 
was the general belief of the Jewish nation, except the 
Sadducees, and of most other nations, that the spirits 
of dead men, especially the wicked, were permitted to 
enter the bodies of men." f Nor is the word in the 
New Testament ever applied to Satan, or to fallen 



a 1 Cor. x. 19, 20. <* Gen. vi. 4. 

b Be Bel. Jud. vii. 6, § 8. e Kiel Opusc. Academ. De Angelia Malis, &c. 

<= ApoL i. 2, p. 65. f Kitto, vol. i. p. 549. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 51 

Attitude assumed by Christ. — •' OldfieldV view an assumption. 

angels. Such, then, being the meaning of the word, 
what inference is to be drawn from the facts of the nar- 
rative, as to the truth of the popular belief ? 

Christ stood between the Sadducees on the one 
hand, an earnest minority, and the Pharisees and popu- 
lace on the other, a powerful majority. Had the weaker 
party had truth on their side, Christ, " born to bear 
witness to the truth," would have stood by them. He 
did not do so. All his words and acts sustained in the 
fullest manner the reality of that against which the 
Sadducees protested. Either, therefore, Christ was de- 
ceived, or a deceiver, or the popular belief was correct. 
If the popular belief was correct, the apneumatic ar- 
gument is overthrown. 

Oldfield, indeed, says these demonic possessions 
were an anomaly, and that the evil spirit that afflicted 
Saul was a nervous malady ; vaunting thus his anony- 
mous authority against the testimony of Josephus, the 
oecumenical belief of that day, the Catholic faith of 
Christendom since, and the explicit declaration of the 
word of God. a For " the Spirit of the Lord (rrirr r*n) 
departed from Saul, and an evil spirit (ns'r-n^H) from 
the Lord came upon him suddenly," (*ifiris:a) or, " seized 
him suddenly. " h 



a " To Daimonion,' p. 137. 

b 1 Sam. xvi. 14, 15, 16, 23, and xviii. 10 ; Comp. Zech. xiii. 2 ; 1 Kings xxil 2L 



52 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

Law of demonic possession stated.— New Testament corroborates it 

But the wish is father to the thought. And even if 
it were an anomalous concomitant of the first advent, 
might there not be an equally anomalous antecedent 
of the second ? 

But it is not anomalous. Demonic possessions, as 
really as eclipses, have their law. And their law is, 
that spirits of the departed, restless and miserable, and 
longing to get back into life, will thrust themselves in 
whenever and wherever odylic conditions of the organ- 
ism will let them. To this every thing said about them 
in the New Testament corresponds. Christ speaks of 
them as " wandering through dry places, seeking rest, 
and finding none ;" a and at length, through very weari- 
ness, returning to the victim they had left. They ask 
not to be sent "out of that country, " b as if lingering 
about the scenes of their earthly life. They dread the 
abyss. c Bather than be exiled from life's scenes, they 
harbour in the organism of swine. They ask not to be 
tormented before the time, as those that must appear at 
the judgment-seat to give account of deeds done in the 
body. The presence of Christ agonises them, " ea !" 
they cry, " ri tjimv kclI aoi 'Irjaov Na^ap7/ve ;" (" Away ! 
what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth?") 
" Art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee who thou 



Matt xii. 43. b Mark v. 10. « Luke viii. 81. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 53 

New Testament continued. — Phenomena various but not anomalous. 

art, the Holy One of God !" a They confess that there 
is naught in common between them and their Judge ; 
forlorn, lost, they seek connection with the living to 
escape, not to inflict, suffering. Hence they seek im- 
pressible subjects, those, namely, in whom the odylic 
bond between soul and body is less firmly fastened, and 
capable of partial disadjustment. Having been once 
incarnate, they retain vestiges of odylic adaptation. 
They invade, they dispossess, in part, the rightful occu- 
pant, and prey upon his odylic energy. Around such 
" subjects" they throng eagerly. Out of one went 
seven. b Out of another a legion. And cases are 
mentioned of those who came to Christ, (ox^ovrjevoi 
vtto TTvev/idroyv axaQ&oruv^ " swarming with unclean 
spirits." d 

Abnormal (yet not anomalous) effects result, vary- 
ing according to the kind of spirit, the part of the 
organism invaded, and the degree of occupancy estab- 
lished. "This kind," says Christ, "goeth not out but 
by prayer and fasting." e — (Tovro 6e to yivoq — This race, 
or class.) In some the hold was local and limited, affect- 
ing particular classes of nerves, e. g., visual, producing 
blindness. Perhaps the invading spirit enabled him- 



a Mark i. 24. d Luke vi. 18. 

b Luke viii. 2. • Matt. xvii. 21. 

e Mark v. 9 ; Luke viii. 30. 



54 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 

Two kinds of lunacy.— The pneumatic hypothesis the true one. 

self to see, and the rightful tenant became blind. So 
of the auditory, vocal, sensational, or motive nerves, 
producing deafness, dumbness, palsy, contractions, &c; 
or the whole brain and nervous system, producing 
fierce and furious delirium. Thus two classes of luna- 
tics are mentioned, those of the ordinary kind, and 
those whose lunacy was produced by spirits.* Thus 
the pneumatic theory, established by the facts of the 
Bible, supplies to them a law by which they are seen 
to fall within the scope of mental and physiological 
science. Hence it is the better theory. It is not enough 
that a theory can by great effort embrace the phenom- 
ena of clairvoyance, rhabdomancy, apparitions, oracles, 
haunted houses, rappings, &c, it must also take in the 
facts of the Bible. It must give to the Bible its natu- 
ral meaning, not explaining away, by fatal accommo- 
dation principles, its demonic possessions, its python- 
esses, its laws, its history of the evoking of Samuel, 
and of the false prophets, nor yet excluding them as 
anomalous. Whatever physiological law accounts for 
odylic phenomena in all ages, will in the end inevitably 
carry itself through the whole Bible, where it deals 
with the phenomena of soul and body as mutually re- 
lated, acting and reacting. A large portion of the 
Bible, its prophecies, ecstasies, visions, trances, theopha- 

Matt. iv. 24, and xvii. 15. 



Pneumatic Hypothesis. — The Bible. 55 

No other theory consists with tho Bible. — Apneumatic solutions impossible. 

fiies, and aogelophanies, are more or less tinged wit! 
odylic characteristics. The physiology, the anthropol- 
ogy of the Bible is highly odylic, and must be studied 
as such. As such, it will be found to harmonize with 
the general principles of human experience in such 
matters in all ages. If a theory be adopted every 
where else but in the Bible, excluding spiritual inter- 
vention by odylic channels in toto, and accounting for 
every thing physically, then will the covers of the 
Bible prove but pasteboard barriers. Such a theory will 
sweep its way through the Bible and its authority, its 
plenary inspiration will be annihilated. On the other 
hand, if the theory of spiritual intervention through 
odylic channels be accepted in the Bible, it cannot be 
shut up there, but must sweep its way through the 
wide domain of " popular superstitions," as they are 
called, separating the element of truth, on which those 
superstitions are based, and asserting its own authorita- 
tive supremacy. 

As to the alleged probability of accounting for all 
those "superstitions" on purely apneumatic grounds, 
it is infinitesimally small. The probabilities are that 
science will approximate nearer to the line in odylics 
which divides between the effective agency of embodied 
and disembodied spirits. At present, the phenomena 
blend in a penumbra, and form a land of shadows and of 
debate. It is only at a distance from the line that effects 



56 Pneumatic Hypothesis. — Conclusion. 

Effect of further research. — Probable future.— Cicero's appeal. 

on either side can be with certainty referred to causes. 
That science will, in clearing up this dimness, ever ex- 
pel spiritual agency from all physical share in human 
intercourse, is in the last degree improbable. 

The progress of odylic research and experiment is 
increasing the probability of an opposite result. Con- 
ditions of spiritual interference are being multiplied. 
And all things betoken that we are entering on the 
first steps of a career of demonic manifestation, the 
issues whereof man cannot conjecture. This part of 
the discussion, then, may well conclude with the appeal 
of Cicero : 

"Why, then, doubt the certainty of this argument? 
If reason consent, if facts, people, nations, Greeks, bar- 
barians, our ancestors, and the universal faith? If 
chief philosophers, poets, the wisest of men, founders 
of republics, builders of cities? Or, discarding the 
united consent of the human kind, shall we wait for 
brutes to speak ?" a 

a De Dir. lib. i. cap. xxxix. 



PART SECOND.— CHARACTER. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

THE CLAIMS, STANDARDS, DIVINE ORIGIN, AND 
ETHICS OP "SPIRITUALISM." 

1. Claims of the movement. Disowning alike sub- 
mission to the authority and antagonism to the spirit 
of the Bible, assailing not the Churches, but their cor- 
ruptions, the Pneumatic Movement claims a divine 
mission, to inaugurate the millennium. Alloyed in 
its incipiency with frivolous and fallacious elements, 
through imperfection of medium and circle ; abused by 
rashness to the production of some cases of insanity 
and evil obsession ; — it promises, by better regulated 
processes and perfected conditions, to develop results I 
of teaching and healing, apostolic in kind if not in 
degree. 

Accepting with eclectic optimism the truth mixed 
with all philosophic and religious systems, especially 
the Christian, it claims to supply atheist and infidel 



58 The Claims of Spiritualism. 

Proves immortality. — Fulfils prophecy. — Claims stoutly advocated. 

with the lacking evidence of immortality. Exempt by 
the new dispensation from the odylic prohibitions 5 * of 
the old, it proclaims a new pentecost, an ultimation of 
the prophecy of Joel, b a realization of the " signs" 
promised by Christ, to follow all believers. Gifted 
with " discerning of spirits," d obeying the command to 
" try the spirits," 6 subjecting the spirits to the prophets/ 
it frankly concedes that "some have, through neglect 
of such directions, departed from the faith, giving heed 
to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons, " g subjects 
of a deceptive energy coming "with all power, and 
signs, and lying wonders." h But while conceding that 
" unclean spirits of demons, working miracles," 1 are 
abroad, as foretold, it claims that through reliable 
spirits the heavens are opening, and the armies of 
heaven riding forth in white raiment to the rescued 

Whoever, ignorant of the publications of the move- 
ment, imagines that these claims are not forcibly 
wielded, with ingenuity, candour, popular adaptation, 
and success, is egregiously mistaken. The movement 
is rapidly advancing, and becoming one of the signs of \ 
the times. 



« Deut. xviii. 10, 11 ; also supra, pp. 40-43. f 1 Cor. xiv. 32. 

b Acts ii. 16, 21. s 1 Tim. iv. 1. 

«= Mark xvi. 17. h 2 Tliess. ii. 9. 

J 1 Cor. xii. 8, 10. ' Rev. xvi. 13, 14. 

« 1 John iv. 1. k Rev. xix. 11, 14. 



Standards of Spirit ualis: 



The Bible the only true standard. — Westminster Confession. 

2. Standard of judgment. In passing upon these 
claims, a standard of judgment is needed. 

When Paul says, "the spirit speaketh expressly" 
of apostates in latter times " giving heed to seducing 
spirits and doctrines of demons, " a or dead men, he 
probably refers to Isaiah's prediction of men who 
should say, — " Seek unto them . that have familiar 
spirits, .... should not a nation seek unto their gods, 
for the living to the dead ?" Hence the prophet's in- 
junction is peculiarly appropriate to our situation, — 

" TO THE LAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY, — if they Speak 

not according to this word, it is because there is no light 
in them." b 

. A better statement of the matter cannot be found in 
uninspired language, than that forged from the furnaces 
of the Eeformation, on the anvils of Westminster : c 

" The supreme Judge, by whom all controversies of 
religion are to be determined, and all decrees of coun- 
cils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and 
private spirits are to be examined, and in whose sen- 
tence we are to rest, can be no other than the Holy 
Spirit, speaking in Scripture." 

The only alternative of this, is, a priestly ritual of 
art magic. 



a 1 Tim. iv. 1. b Is. viii. 16. « Conf. of Faith, ch. i. sec. x. 

7 



60 Standards of Spiritualism. 

Magic formulae and exorcisms the only alternative. — Testimony of Jamblichus. 

It is conceded that there are " multitudes of low 
■undeveloped, deceptive spirits," 1 and that men out of 
the body are, at least those nearest us, like men in ; 
and if so, honest spirits must be few. b Jamblichus, 
also, confesses that " inferior divinities assume the 
guise of the superior, and falsely declare themselves 
to be those whose form they bear, and vaunt glorious 
speeches, and arrogate unreal powers." 

How, then, can we detect the counterfeit ? 

" The genuine deities," answers Jamblichus, " com- 
municate with good men alone, and such as are properly 
purged by sacred riles. But if any, themselves im- 
pure, insolently invade sacred things contrary to the 
ritual, they cannot attain unto the Gods." 

"Debarred by their own iniquity from pure spirits, 
they attract evil spirits by affinity, by whom they are 
impelled to iniquity. Impious and irreligious, intro- 
ducing irregularities, and transgressing the ritual, they 
make one divinity appear for another, wicked demons 
for Grods." d One would almost imagine Jamblichus 
wrote this yesterday, rather than twelve centuries ago, 
so exactly does it exhibit the modern theory of the 
Circles. The consequence must be the same in all 
ages. A eitual of invocation, adjuration, charm, 



a Spiritual Manifestations, A. Ballou, p. 8. c De Mysteriis, ii. c. 10. 

*> See especially Ibid. pp. 61, 62. d rb. iii. c. 31. 



Standards of Spiritualism. 61 

The process already begun. — Vegetable regimen.— Amulets. 

periapt, and spell, will gradually construct itself with 
all the devices of the magic art, nor can the good ad- 
vice of the more sensible men connected with the 
movement prevent it. a Already the process is begun. 
Already Pythagorean regimen for mediums is hinted 
at. Already interrogations are heard, — " Is this a 
happy spirit ?" or, "Is this an chappy spirit ?" and 
hymns are sung, and' other means employed to detain 
the one and expel the other. 

Exorcisms abound in Cahagnet's Celestial Tele- 
graph. 1 * Mrs. Hauffe employed them, and wore an 
amulet which ran about her person like a living 
thing. And scarce a circle but has its own counter- 
feit-spirit detector. With naive simplicity we are 
directed to demand of spirits a token of recognition, 
"whether by a particular sign, a jewel, or aught else, 
God never suffering evil spirits to counterfeit in this 
respect. " d At the rate things are now moving, a very 
few years must suffice to generate a ritual as elabo- 
rate as that to which Jamblichus refers. 

Declining all such expedients, while allowing to 



a Spiritual Manifestations, pp. 95, 96. 

b See pp. 8S, 64, 66, 72, 99, 164, 165, 163, &c. 

c Seeress of Prevorst, p. 22. Dr. Kerner found it to contain assafcetida, sabina, 
cranny, two stramonium seeds, a small magnet, and a paper -mitten "The Son of God 
came to destroy the works of the devil." 

d Cahagnet's Cel. Tel. p. 100. 



62 Divine 1: 1 g i n . — Miracles. 

Paul's test for truth.— Evidence derived from miracles. 

invisible powers the largest liberty of utterance, we 
fall back to the challenge of Paul — " If any man think 
himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowl- 
edge that the things I write unto you are of the 
Lord." a And if any spirit, rejoicing in the name of 
Paul, appear to tell us that he has progressed, and 
altered his opinions since writing his Epistles, let us 
reply in his own words, " Though we, or an angel 
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than 
that ye have received, let him be accursed." b 

3. Divine origin, evidenced by miracles. 

If the miracles of this movement, it is asked, do 
not evince a divine origin, how could it be done ? We 
answer : — When God would found a dispensation, Egypt 
bowed beneath his stroke. Sinai quaked and blazed. 
Two millions of fugitives ate manna forty years, clad 
in undecaying vestments, led by a fiery cloud through 
a howling wilderness, where the awe-stricken travel- 
ler confesses their prolonged existence a perpetual 
miracle. 

When Grod would abolish the old dispensation, he 
became flesh, died, rose, ascended. And when he shall 
end the present, " the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel 



a 1 Cor. xiv. 37. h Gal. i. 9. c Eobinson's Eesearches, vol. ii. p. 618. 



Ethics of Spiritualism. 63 

The inimitable greatness of God's miraculous interpositions. 

and the trump of God." a Those who would parallel 
the portents of our time, with these divine sublimities, 
might learn humility even of Jamblichus. Having 
described certain effulgent epiphanies, he adds, — "but 
those who, unable to obtain these blessed visions, bring 
down spirits whom they cannot see, grope altogether in 
the dark, perceiving only a few manifestations through 
the body of the medium, or disconnected with it in 
the midst." b 

And when gifts of healing are brought to shake the 
authority of the Bible, they must at least equal 
those of Christ, who, in the north of Gralilee, energised 
through twelve, and seventy disciples, all over Pales- 
tine, raising the dead, and healing all diseases at a 
word. At least, we shall wait till these apostles have 
vindicated their commission, by drinking poison un- 
harmed, before we accept of them another, or an im- 
proved gospel. 

4. Ethics, and Scripture citations. 

The Ethics of the system, being confessedly com- 
mon to all schools — papal, pagan, or Christian — prove 
nothing for a divine origin. All its texts of Scripture, 
arguing at most that some manifestations may be, not 
that these are divine, imply an equal possibility of an 



» 1 Thess. iy. 16. b De Mysteriis, iii. ch. vi. c Mark xyi. 18. 



64 Scripture used by Spiritualism. 

The modern circle perhaps as sinful as of old. 

opposite origin. Its defence against the denunciations 
of the law a is inconclusive. If the mental attitude of 
the circle, viz., submission to unseen guidance, is essen- 
tially like that of the old devotee, idolatrous and con- 
taminating ; then God's word will stand, " I will set my 
face against that soul, and will cut him off from his 
people." 15 But from the admitted character of the 
spirits next behind the veil, and from the very condi- 
tions necessary to obtain communications, such idola- 
trous contamination is inevitable. 

For this reason, probably, the touch of a corpse, 
or of a grave, was made to communicate ceremonial 
un cleanness, to impress, by association of ideas, the 
national mind with the profound feeling that mental 
contact with the dead must be analogously demoralis- 
ing. The fascination of such intercourse, having been 
the life of Baal worship in its original pagan, as well 
as in its baptised papal form, must be equally cor- 
rupting under a third and more popular development. 
That element, but for which the putrid carcass of old 
sacerdotal mummery must have sunk loathsome to dust, 
let but a century pass, will animate a priesthood of 
the circle, ruling benighted myriads as despotically 
as its prototype of the grove and of the cloister. 



a Deut. xviii. 10, 11. c Lev. xxii. 4 ; Numb. v. 2, and xix. 11- 

b Lev. xx. 3. 



Thkolooy of Spiritualism. 65 

If idolatrous it cannot escape.— Chap. IX. — Orthodoxy. 

If so, the same stamp of divine abhorrence which 
rested on that will be found branded on this. ISTor will 
the virtue and piety, nay, perhaps, the Christian experi- 
ence, of individuals connected with the movement, in- 
validate this judgment, for it was one of the most 
astonishing marks of both papal and pagan systems, 
that they could entice to their support so many of the 
true worshippers of Jehovah. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THEOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISM. THE RESURRECTION. 

5. Theology of the movement. 

In the midst of much diversity and contradiction, 
there is a substantial unity of doctrine. Individual 
mediums have contradicted one another. Among 
them all, every doctrine of the Evangelical system 
might be found conceded, first or last. In one in- 
stance, at Mountain Cove, Va., a small party exists, 
professing the usual orthodox creed, but claiming di- 
rect plenary inspiration, and denouncing the movement 
at large as smoke from the bottomless pit. These ex- 
ceptions apart, the average scope and tendency of their 
doctrine is one. 



66 Theology of Spiritualism. 

Doctrine of resurrection a test. — Coincidence with Egyptian mythology. 

Kejecting the Bible as authority, claiming for all men 
inspiration in common with Christ and the Apostles, and 
of the same kind ; regarding sin as immaturity of devel- 
opment ; eschewing all received ideas of a fall of angels 
and men from original holiness, of total depravity, 
atonement, regeneration, pardon, &c. ; — the system is 
in its last analysis, though but half developed, a poly- 
theistic pantheism, disguising, under the name of 
spirit, a subtle but genuine materialism. 

A full discussion of the subject being of course im- 
possible in our narrow limits, we select, as a test of the 
system, a single first principle of Christianity, on which 
the movement is most unanimous — the resurrection of 
the dead. 

It is remarkable that the spirit- world of this system, 
unlike that of Christendom, and like that of ancient 
Egypt, is substantially the same, whether described by a 
Western medium, or a Paris clairvo} T ant, by the seer of 
Poughkeepsie, or the seeress of Prevorst. " The Egyp- 
tians," says Spineto, " divided the whole world into 
three zones ; — the first was the earth, or zone of trial ; 
the second was the zone of the air, perpetually agitated 
by winds and storms, and was considered the zone of 
temporal punishment ; the third was the zone of rest 
and tranquillity, which was above the other two. The 
first zone was divided into four departments, the second 
into twelve, and the third into sixteen; so that the 



Theology of Spiritualism. 67 

Mr. Ballou's theory. — Possible truth in them all. 

sum total of the regions in which, the souls of the 
dead were to be distributed, -was in fact thirty-two." 

" Souls on leaving the body were thrown into the 
second zone, to be whirled about by winds through the 
regions of the air, till they were called upon either to 
return to the first zone, to animate a new body, or to 
be removed into the third, where the air was perpet- 
ually pure and tranquil. " a 

Compare with this Mr. Ballou's account : — " There 
is a series of grand spheres commencing with man's 
rudimental sphere in the flesh, and ascending in just 
gradation to the highest heavens. Each grand sphere 
comprises several secondary spheres or circles, and each 
secondary sphere or circle has several degrees, &c, &c." b 

Xow there may be some element of truth in all this. 
Paul was caught away to the third heaven. c Christ as- 
cended u vTregdvG) 7rdvTG)v tuv ovpavGJv" d (literally, above 
all the heavens) ; and we well know that in our " Father's 
house are many mansions." 6 But that which specially 
characterises the theory under question, is its elimina- 
tion-at-death theory of resurrection, and subsequent 
j)rogress. The objection to this theory is, that it is not 
taught, but, on the contrary, severely censured, in the 
New Testament. St. Paul declares, that those who say 
that the resurrection is past already, make shipwreck of 

a Encyc. Am. art. Egyptian Mythology. c 2 Cor. xii. 2. e John xiv. 2. 

b Spiritual Manifestations, pp. 46, 47. <* Eph. iv. 10. 



68 Theology of Spiritualism. 

The resurrection not yet passed. — Isaac Taylor on the intermediate state. 

the faith, and that their word eats like a canker. a Yet 
this system affirms that the resurrection of all former 
generations is past. b The Apostles always throw the 
view forward to the simultaneous resurrection of all the 
just, at the second coming of Christ. " And we are also 
taught," says Mr. Isaac Taylor, " to think of the state of 
souls, not as a state of unconsciousness indeed, but of 

comparative inaction, or of suspended energy 

A transition state in which the passive faculties of 
our nature, rather than the active, are to be awake; 
and throughout which probably those emotions of the 
moral nature that have been overborne, or held in 
abeyance by the urgent impulses of animal life, shall 
take their free course, and reach their height as fixed 
habits of the mind." Hence : " It is plain that a more 
attenuated corporeity may be held to belong to the in- 
termediate transition state of human nature, than shall 
befit its ultimate condition of full energy and activity. 
Powers latent do not need a structure which has rela- 
tion to the exertion of powers upon an external world. 
The chrysalis period of the soul may be marked by 
the destitution of all the instruments of active life, 
corporeal and mental." This Scripture idea is singu- 



a 1 Tim. i. 19 ; comp. 2 Tim. ii. 18. 

b A small community of Spiritualists at Mountain Cove, Fayette County, Vir- 
ginia, are an exception to this statement. 

o Physical Theory of Another Life, pp. 212, 2ia 



Theology of Spiritualism 



Imbecile spirits.— Scripture theory of spiritual orders. 



1 a rly verified by tlie whole style of the current " mani- 
fostations." Spirits impotent, bankrupt per se, borrow 
odylic energy of the living for their least operation on 
matter. Intellectually insane, their mediocre wares are 
all the cast-clothes of living minds of small calibre, or 
mummy- wrappings from the catacombs. Of the circle, 
we may say as Mr. Taylor does of the polytheistic tem- 
ple of all ages : " Colourless daylight does not enter 
that fane: a sepulchral taint sickens the atmosphere, 
and he who has not by effort and practice gained com- 
mand over himself, exclaims, ' If I stay long in this 
place I shall lose my senses, let me escape from it 
while I can.' " a The claim of such teachers to celestial 
rank, invalidated already by Jamblichus, grows more 
and more precarious ; and the probability is proportion- 
ately enhanced of their appropriate reference to an op- 
posite category of existence, if such can be found. 

Now, when Scripture would indicate the universal 
jurisdiction of Christ over all intelligent orders of the 
universe, it classifies them in a threefold distribution : 
" at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, enovpavicov 
nai emyeiiov nal fcaraxOoviuv ." b (Literally, of celestials, 
terrestrials, and suiter rest-rials.) When it would reveal 
the object of Christ's death and resurrection, it is " Iva 



a Loyola and Jesuitism, p. 200. b Phil, ii 10. 



70 Theology of Spiritualism. 

Scripture theory continued. — Three classes. — Isaac Taylor. 

Kal venp&v koI £u)VTG)v KvpiEvo^P* (Literally, that he 
might lord it over the dead, and the living.) When it 
would bring before us a vivid vision of the anticipated 
realitjr, it causes us to hear a universal anthem of praise 
from every creature, (ev tgj ovpavti koI em rrjg yrjg koI 
vnorcaTG) rrjg yrjg,) " in heaven, upon earth, and under 
the earth.'* 

" This classification of intelligent beings," says Mr. 
Taylor, " it must be confessed, by no means corre- 
sponds with the distribution we are most accustomed 
to think of, namely, that which arranges all rational 
beings into the three classes — the inhabitants of heaven 
holy and happy, the inhabitants of earth who are on 
their probation, and the condemned and infernal spirits. 
For, on the one hand, certain classes of celestials, (the 
ercovpavioi^ are spoken of by St. Paul as being in open 
opposition to the divine government." " Our wres- 
tling," Paul says, " is not with flesh and blood," (the 
emyeioi, or terrestrial combinations,) "but irpbg rag 
&p%dg, npbg rag etjovoiag irpbg rovg KoafiOKparopag rov 
GKorovg rovrov, rrpbg ra irvEVfiariica rrjg ixovr\piag ev rotg 
eTrovpavioig." (Literally, against principalities, against 
powers, against the cosmocrats of this darkness, against 



a Eom. xiv. 9. 

t> Rev. v. 13, comp. v. 3; also Lyell's Geology, vol. i. ch. xviii. and xix., and 
Physical Theory of Another Life, 184, 185, 210, &c. 
c Eph. vi. 12. 



Theology of Spiritualism. 71 

Condensed view of the three spiritual orders. 

the " pneumatics" of wickedness among the celestials.) 
" While on the other hand," continues Mr. Taylor, " the 
infernals, or inhabitants of the nether region, or of 
Hades, are represented as subjects of Messiah's kingly 
function, and also as joining with celestials and terres- 
trials in an anthem of praise to God and the Lamb." a 

According to this view, which, is based upon a correct 
exegesis of the original Scriptures, the " enovpavioi" or 
celestial orders, good and bad, are potentially above 
matter, supremely administrative over all mechanical, 
chemical, and vital processes. 13 The "emyeioi" are in mat- 
ter, controlling, yet controlled ; ruling, yet enslaved by 
bodies weak, dishonoured, corruptible, animal — bodies 
" rrjg raTreivwoeG)^ 1 of humiliation. The " kclt(i%Qovioi" 
subterrestrials, are beneath matter, (potentially if not 
locally, as Mr. Taylor supposes,) incapable of swaying 
it, unless by abnormal, and somewhat piratical trespass 
upon the odylic powers of their superiors. d Hence they 
seek a quasi re-incarnation among the " imyeioi" or 
living ; and to conciliate them to grant the necessary 
odylic facilities, charm them by the fiction that they are 
" etcovqclvlol" empyreal. Thus, complacent mortals be- 
stow favours on needy mendicants from below, while 



a- Physical Theory of Another Life, pp. 184, 185. 

b Comp. 2 Kings xix. 36 ; Joh i. 12-19 ; Luke ii. 9 ; Acts v. 19, and xii. ! 

c Eom. viii. 23 ; 1 Cor. xv. 42, 44 ; Phil. iii. 21. 

J Is. xiv. 10 : Ezek. xxxii. 19-32. 



72 Practical Results. — Conclusion. 

Wicked " celestials."— Chap. X.— A verdict 

fancying themselves in receipt of exalted condescension 
from above. 

Or, it may be, that some of those cosmocratic 
archons, (of whom Jamblichus speaks in terms almost 
identical with those of Paul,) some of those "wicked 
spiritualities among the celestials," may impose on the 
living, by the fond dream that all celestials are of 
necessity holy. Or, employing the services of the* 
u KaraxQovioL," their too willing serviles, they may op- 
press the living by a double delusion. 



CHAPTER X. 

PRACTICAL RESULTS. CONCLUSION. 

If, then, the present pneumatic movement is to be 
referred either to the category of Rev. xvi. 14, or of Rev. 
xix., the probabilities are strongly toward the former. 

Nor is this probability weakened by their lofty 
claims. If they have healed more diseases — -more 
than they have generated by confirmed obsession — it 
proves no more than the Sisters of Charity prove for 
Rome. While, in claiming to supply the lacking evi- 
dence of immortality, needed to convert infidels and 
atheists, they indirectly deny that the resurrection of 



Practical Results. — Conclusion. 73 

The movement denies the doctrines of Scripture. 

Christ "brought life and immortality to light," a and 
gave proof to all mankind of an appointed day of 
judgment ; b and that the Holy Ghost, by regenerating 
and sanctifying the elect, gives proper evidence of the 
divinity of Christianity. Invoking the presence of 
many mediators, they revive the essential element of 
both Pagan and Papal apostacy; denying the One 
Mediator Christ, by whose blood alone we live, and by 
whom alone we approach unto God. 

Claiming to be the avant-couriers of millennial 
glory, yet denying, with few exceptions, " that blessed 
hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God 
and Saviour Jesus Christ," they incur the almost cer- 
tain stigma of false Christs which should precede his 
coming. 

All who bow to the authority of the Bible, who 
know in their own hearts the work of the Holy Ghost, 
and who love Christ's appearing, must feel instinctively 
that here moves a mighty antagonistic influence. 

Mighty as the deep yearning of mankind in all 
ages to penetrate the tremendous secrets of the dead ; 
mighty as the conception of departed worth, the unut- 
terable longing of bereaved hearts for the unforgotten, 
and the ecstatic delight of souls suddenly restored to con- 



»iTim.i.ia *AflfexTiL«. 

4 



74 Practical Results. — Conclusion. 

Fascinations of Spiritualism. — How to meet the movement. 

verse with the idolised whose loss made life a desert ; — 
they weave the spell of exciting novelty ; they excite 
the vague presentiment of boundless discovery, and 
unveil a dazzling horizon of an elysium without a 
Cross, where mankind shall be as gods, knowing good 
and evil. Drunk with this elixir, the millions sur- 
render themselves to the implicit sway of what 

powers? Powers unseen, powers aerial, under the 
masterly guidance of some one mind of fathomless 
ability, and fathomless guile. 

If, then, the nations of this unhappy planet, before 
their ultimate redemption, are to be rallied to a moral 
Armageddon battle-field against the simple Gospel of 
Christ ; if nominal Christendom must be semi-pagan- 
ised, to prepare for the fraternal embrace of Pagandom 
semi-christianised, here is one agency, which, with 
others, is eminently adapted to do the work. "Whether 
such be its character and its destiny time will show, 
and every man must judge for himself. 

The question of practical moment for us is, how 
shall the movement be met ? 

Obviously with kindly courtesy. Whatever be the 
character of the powers communicating, there is no 
objection to hear all they have to say. If they' can 
logically destroy the authority of the Word of Grod 
and the truth of evangelical doctrine, let them do it. 
In wrestling, however, against the aerial host, railing 



Conclusion. 75 



Bailing, not a weapon. — Treatment of individuals. — The end. 

or vituperation are not mentioned by the Apostle as 
forming any part of the panoply of God. On the 
contrary, even Michael disputing with one of the ce- 
lestial orders, about the body of Moses, " durst not 
bring a railing accusation against him, but said, ' The 
Lord rebuke thee.' " a 

As to the gentlemen and ladies engaged enthusias- 
tically in what appears to them a good cause, they are 
to be met with respect and Christian consideration. 
If they are in error, it is an honest one ; the evi- 
dence before their mind is very specious, very strong. 
If it be a delusion, it is certainly a very strong delu- 
sion. Christian humility should teach us that if we 
have not been deluded, it is of grace, and that we be 
not high-minded, but fear. We should meet them with 
argument. "We should admit all facts sustained by 
proper evidence, and show them that the "Word of God 
has a deeper foundation, and a broader basis in the 
nature of things, than they, or we have hitherto been 
aware. And if the result shall be to lead Christians 
to a more patient and profound re-investigation of the 
doctrine of the resurrection and future life, and con- 
nected themes, God, who brings good out of evil, may 
bring benefit out of even this. 



* Jude 9. 



MuMt gcto $mrhs, gmntla %Ms\to, 

BY 

Gk P. Putnam & Co., 10 Park Place. 



RURAL ESSAYS, 

"With Memoir by G. W. Curtis, a Letter to his friends bv Frederic Bremer, &c. 
With Portrait. 8vo. Cloth, $3.00. 

" This beautifully printed volume comprises, with one or two exceptions, all Mr. 
Downing editorial papers in the Horticulturist, and is as important a contribution 
to the literature of rural taste as any of his previous works. We consider these 
papers models in their way. This publication is as opportune as it is valuable. ■ The 
readers of the Horticulturist, familiar with these papers, will be pleased to have 
them in this shape, and thousands of others, attracted by Downing's reputation and 
his melancholy fate, will read them, and, we hope, attempt to carry out the excellent 
advice they contain. This collection is edited by Mr. George William Curtis, who 
has added a pleasing memoir of Mr. Downing. Miss Bremer's letter to Mr. 
Downing's friends, also printed in this volume, is a warm tribute to his character ."-*- 
Evening Post. 

"This is a work of very peculiar interest. It contains a large number of Mr. 
Downing's best articles upon gardening and agriculture, many of which have never 
before been published. Not only is the work" marked by a high order of genius, but 
it is also rendered sacred with the memories of the ill-fated author. 1 ' — Albany Tran- 
script. 

ir. 

A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. 

With Eemarks ox Bural Architecture. 
■ With numerous Illustrations. New, revised edition. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50. 
" A masterly work of its kind." — London Athenmum. 

' ; There is no work extant which can be compared in ability to Downing's volume 
on this subject." — Louisville Journal. 

" The standard Avork on this subject." — Silliman's Journal. 

in. 
Dictionary of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects, 

From Ancient to Modern Times, 

With the Monograms, Ciphers, and Marks used by Distinguished Artists to certify 

their works. By S. Spooler, A. B., M. D. Large 8vo., 1300 pages. Cloth, $7.00. 

This valuable work contains 12,000 biographies of Artists, a glossary list of all their 

best works, a brief history of the Fine Arts, a glossary of terms, Valuable tables, 

monograms, &c, forming the only complete work of the kind in the language. 

" The author is an experienced connoisseur, in both foreign and native art. An 
unusual amount of labor has been bestowed upon this work."— Ilome Journal. 

IV. 

Eevised Edition of Judge Hall's Works. 
Legends of the West. 

By James Hall. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. 

v. 
Behind the Curtain: a Tale of Elville. 

12mo. Cloth, $1.00. 

VI. 

Every-day Scripture Readings : 

with Brief Eeviews and Practical Observations. For the use of Families and Schools. 
By Eev. J. L. Blake, D. D. With Engravings. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
"This volume is doubtless a valuable addition to family and school religious read- 
ing, and in some respects fills a void." — Albany Transcript. 



